Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 86074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Lili felt a tingle of distaste go through her, nibbled at the edges of her artificial calm. She had always thought that you could tell what kind of man you were dating by how they treated servers and wait staff. Of course, she and the Dark Kindred guard weren’t dating, but seeing him demand that they be served first and treating the robot waiter like crap gave her a sensation that would definitely be dislike, if the emotion damper hadn’t been in place.
“Now, let’s sit,” LJ-91 said to her. “In a moment you will see why this is the best Garn House in the city.”
Feeling like she had no choice, Lili sat across from him at the crowded metal table. To her left, a line of huge Dark Kindred warriors were hunched over their bowls, all eating silently. The hard metal stool had no padding and hurt her ass, but since no one else was complaining, she didn’t say anything.
Barely a minute had passed before the waiter robot came back. On a plain metal tray, he had two large metal bowls of the blue-gray mush everyone else was eating as well as a small white shaker with tiny holes in its top.
“Here you are. Two bowls of garn and a shaker of our special seasoning.” The robot waiter sat the bowls in front of them and gave them each an eating utensil which looked a little bit like a Slurpee straw to Lili. It was metal instead of red plastic, but it had a little spoon-like scooper on one end and it was hollow, like a straw.
LJ-91 didn’t thank the robot waiter at all. He simply snatched the straw-spoon it was holding out to him and began eating.
Lili watched him closely, trying to see how this was done. The Dark Kindred took a few bites with the spoon part of his utensil, then stuck it deep in the middle of the bowl and sucked hard. Clearly he was both eating and drinking the garn—which seemed really weird to Lili, though of course she didn’t say anything.
She stuck her own spoon-straw into the blue-gray mush and got a tiny bite to try. She was afraid it might taste fishy, like the weird black ink and kelp sandwiches that f’loon had given her to eat on F’rith Three.
However, when she brought the bite to her nose, she smelled nothing. And when she tasted it, she tasted the same thing—absolutely nothing. It was like someone had shredded a whole ream of copy paper, added water, and stewed it down to a bland, mushy paste. Even with the emotion damper in her neck, the taste made Lili want to gag.
LJ-91 didn’t seem to have a problem with the food, however. He was eagerly eating his blue-gray mush, stopping every once in a while, to sprinkle some of the special seasoning over the soggy surface. After a moment he looked up and frowned at Lili.
“What’s wrong? Why are you not consuming the garn?” he asked. “Don’t you find it excellent?”
Lili wanted to say she found it bland and disgusting, but she recognized that probably wasn’t a smart thing to say.
“It is…different from the garn they serve on the Med Barge where I live,” she said. “I am not certain I find it to my liking.”
“You just need to try their special seasoning blend. Here.” LJ-91 handed her the small white shaker. “Go on—it makes all the difference,” he urged.
Hesitantly, Lili sprinkled some of the tiny white crystals on her blue-gray mush. Then—only because the Dark Kindred guard was watching—she took a large bite and chewed it.
“Well?” He raised his eyebrows—or the one she could see anyway, since his other eye was taken over by the telescopic sight.
Lili swallowed.
“It’s salt,” she said flatly.
“What?” LJ-91 frowned.
“Their ‘special seasoning blend’—it’s just salt,” Lili repeated. “You know? Sodium?”
“Sodium?” LJ-91 repeated, still looking confused.
“It’s a common seasoning where I come from,” Lili told him.
And it hadn’t done anything to liven up the bland paste they were eating either. Instead of just eating stewed paper mush, it now tasted like she was eating salted paper mush, which wasn’t in any way an improvement.
“How common is it?” LJ-91 wanted to know. “Can you find it anywhere?”
“Well, pretty much. It’s—”
Suddenly Lili saw what she hoped was a way out. Finally most of the customers in line had gotten their food and now the back of the Garn House was clear except for one or two Dark Kindred warriors.
“Excuse me,” she said to LJ-91. “I really must relieve myself. I’ll be back momentarily.”
Getting up without waiting for him to answer, she made her way to the back of the restaurant and found a door marked, “Fresher.”
Stepping inside, she saw a long metal urinal that took up an entire wall. There was a single warrior standing at it, urinating loudly. He paid Lili no attention at all, which was a relief, but the bathroom still wasn’t a pleasant place to be.